Former AIG CEO: Dodd-Frank Regulations 'Shoot First, Aim Later'

Former American International Group (AIG) chairman and CEO Hank Greenberg lambasted the Dodd-Frank financial reform package at a Thursday press conference.

“Congress passed Dodd-Frank before all the committees had a report on what went wrong,” he said. “So, do you shoot first and aim later? It seems to me that we want to get all the facts first. And the second thing is that there are some countries in the world with very good regulation and good regulators.

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“They pay them enough money to get good regulators. Go to Singapore and see the regulatory [environment there]. I understand it’s a small city-state, but they have done very well. You can learn something from some of the other countries.”

Greenberg added that the current regulatory environment as a whole, in the United States and abroad, is detrimental to growth.

“The procedures you have to go through today are much longer and time-consuming than they had been previously,” he said. “It’s not just for one company. It’s for everybody. Everybody is treated the same. It’s not only in the United States. It’s spread overseas.

“The regulatory environment is going to hold back growth in many countries.”